U.S. BRIEFS

EXPLORATION

UNOCAL EXPLORATION CORP.'S E-15 OCS G-1031 well flowed 5.5 MMcfd of gas and 54 b/d of condensate through an 11/64 in. choke with 4,625 flowing tubing pressure from 87 ft of Pliocene pay at 10,610-11,536 ft on Ship Shoal Block 253 off Louisiana. Unocal expects the fault block discovery to produce at a rate of at least 10 MMcfd. Unocal, operator, holds a 50% interest in the block. Marathon Oil Co. owns the remaining 50%.

HONDO OIL & GAS CO., Roswell, N.M., tested a Pennsylvanian Upper Morrow discovery in Ochiltree County of the Texas Panhandle, 14 miles southeast of Perryton. Its 4 Jines flowed 540 b/d of oil and 468 Mcfd of gas through a 10/64 in. choke. Hondo holds a 100% working interest in the 640 acre lease and several other leases in four sections west of the discovery.

NUEVO ENERGY CO.'S 1 Paramount-Sigler 25-6 wildcat in Monroe County, Ala., 11/4 miles northwest of Frisco City, flowed 1.03 MMcfd of gas and 832 b/d of oil through a 14/64 in. choke with 2,398 psi flowing tubing pressure from perforations at 12,069-119 ft in Jurassic Frisco City sand. Torch Operating Co., an affiliate of Nuevo, operates the well on behalf of interest owners Paramount Petroleum Co. Inc. 40%, Nuevo 30%, and Howell Petroleum Corp. 30%. Paramount generated the prospect.

TRANSPORTATION

ARCO acquired a 37.4% interest in Olympic Pipe Line Co. from Shell Pipe Line Corp. for an undisclosed price. In 1990, the 391 mile, 6-20 in. pipeline carried 265,000 b/d of gasoline, jet fuel, and distillate from Puget Sound, Washington, area refineries to markets in Washington and Oregon. Other interest owners are Texaco Inc. 37.5% and BP America Inc. 25.1%. ARCO Transportation Co. will manage ARCO's interest, and the partners expect Shell to remain as operator until they select a new one.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER BULK TERMINAL, a subsidiary of Ergon Inc., Jackson, Miss., paid $9.25 million to a Chapter 11 trustee for LaJet terminal, docks, and 757 acres in St. James Parish, La. Port of South Louisiana held title to the 1 million bbl terminal because of LaJet's default on 1980 industrial revenue bonds. Ergon also acquired a 2 year right of first refusal on the 38,000 b/d LaJet refinery.

CNG TRANSMISSION CORP., Clarksburg, W.Va., agreed to pay Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Resources (DER) $82,350 in civil fines for alleged failure to use proper erosion and sedimentation controls in laying a gas pipeline through parts of Allegheny and Butler counties, Pa., last year. CNG allowed soil from its construction to run into several waterways, DER said.

IROQUOIS GAS TRANSMISSION SYSTEM let a $25 million contract to McDermott International Inc., Morgan City, La., to lay 26.3 miles of 24 in. pipeline across Long Island Sound. Crossing of the sound is the first phase of construction of the 370 mile pipeline (OGJ, Mar. 11, p. 32). The system is scheduled to deliver as much as 575.9 MMcfd of Canadian gas to gas utilities and power companies to six states in New England.

ALTERNATE FUELS

CONSUMERS POWER CO. began receiving electricity from a landfill northwest of Lansing, Mich., producing methane from organic refuse. Methane provides fuel for three internal combustion engines, each connected to an 800 kw generator. Granger Renewable Resources Landfill Gas Unit No. 2 is providing 2,000 kw in test production.

ENCOAL CORP., Houston, a unit of Shell Oil Co.'s Shell Mining Co., let contract to SG Technology, a unit of SGI International, La Jolla, Calif., to adapt an SGI control system and supply process engineering and related technical support services for Encoal's $72 million coal liquefaction plant under construction near Gillette, Wyo. The plant will process about 1,000 tons/day of coal to produce the equivalent of low sulfur coal, along with a low sulfur liquid for the No. 6 fuel oil market.

PETROCHEMICALS

UNION CARBIDE CORP. believes it will be able to meet customer demand for polyethylene from inventory, other plants, and outside purchases until it can restart its Seadrift plant in Port Lavaca, Tex. An explosion earlier this month in the ethylene oxide purification system caused a plant shutdown until power utilities can be restored (OGJ, Mar. 18, p. 53).

CHEVRON CORP., Exxon Chemical Corp., and Mitsubishi Corp. will build the U.S.'s first ethylene export terminal, aiming for third quarter 1991 start-up. The facility, to be built at Chevron U.S.A.'s Galena Park terminal on the Houston Ship Channel, is designed to load vessels that ship ethylene at about -130 F. It will provide export capacity for each partner.

DRILLING-PRODUCTION

NOBLE AFFILIATES INC., Ardmore, Okla., paid about $5.5 million to New England Energy Inc. for interests ranging from 2% to 50% in several leases holding net remaining proved reserves of 133,200 bbl of oil and 7.8 bcf of gas. The trade covers three producing and nine undeveloped leases in the Gulf of Mexico and six prospects in Oklahoma and Texas.

OCEAN DRILLING & EXPLORATION CO., New Orleans, plans to evaluate an unsolicited offer to acquire its contract drilling business. The name of the prospective buyer and terms offered were not disclosed. Odeco intends to proceed with its exchange offer for Odeco stock it does not own.

REFINING

TEXACO REFINING & MARKETING INC. chose Texaco Development Co. HyTEX gasification process to produce high purity hydrogen from a variety of feedstocks, including refinery offgas, at its Anacortes, Wash., refinery. In the HYTEX process, waste gas streams such as those from a fluid catalytic cracker, hydrotreater, and coker offgases are fed to the gasifier with no pretreatment.

COMPANIES

UNION PACIFIC FUELS INC. signed contracts to supply 10 MMcfd to Cincinnati Gas & Electric Co. and 2.5 MMcfd of gas to Southern Indiana Gas & Electric Co. for 1 year. Both distribution companies are supplied through Texas Gas Transmission Corp.'s system.

SEAGULL ENERGY CORP., Houston, will open a Midcontinent division of its exploration and production subsidiary in Amarillo, Tex. The new division, with 70 employees in Amarillo and 28 in the field, will manage assets acquired in a $194 million purchase from Mesa LP (OGJ, Mar. 18, p. 53).

PSI, a subsidiary of Utilicorp United, Kansas City, was renamed Aquila Energy. During 1991, Aquila will continue an acquisition program of pipelines, processing and production, facilities, and reserves. Copyright 1991 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.

Issue date: 03/25/91

Copyright 1991 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.